


knotted in your golden tongue

by spookysp_ace (summermoonsdawn)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Love at First Sight, M/M, and i say so, animal doctor kuroo, bandit daichi, dolittle 2020, eh???, it's like a prequel to the dolittle movie?, kuroo just sees daichi and swoons yk, not really spoilers for it, poem from "everything gold" by robert frost, tags bc i fucking can, the one where i say "gold" too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23995954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summermoonsdawn/pseuds/spookysp_ace
Summary: Kuroo has washed up on the shore of a bandit-run island in need to leave and escape, quickly.Enter Daichi, wrapped in gold, and the means of his escape.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Sawamura Daichi
Comments: 3
Kudos: 52





	knotted in your golden tongue

**Author's Note:**

> hey friends!! sorry it's been a bit.
> 
> ahhhh i've been working on this one for a bit. i'm pretty happy with how MOST of this came out. hopefully y'all can still enjoy
> 
> this IS based around some events that happen previous to canon events of the 2020 Dolittle movie??? i don't THINK there's any spoilers in case you haven't watched the movie or intend to watch it.
> 
> if you're wanting a little context though, here's the [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEf412bSPLs) for the movie

_nature's first green is gold_

_her hardest hue to hold_

_her early leaf's a flower_

_but only so an hour_

_~ ~ ~_

It started a little like this. With Kuroo coughing up water onto white sand after washing up onto a beach. His clothes? Soaked. His belongings? Scattered. The animals? His friends?

_ Well– _

“State your name, outsider,” someone growled above him.

He looked up to see swords, all around him, pointed straight to his face. A group of several appearing bandits looked down on him, eyes dark but sun bright and sharp behind them. A quick count had their numbers at ten. Far too many for him and his little team of animals to take right on the open beach. Their clothes were all loose pants tucked into dark leather boots, shirts hanging off their shoulders. Piercings adorned each of their faces and ears, gold dripping necklaces, and dark painted markings under their eyes to look like claw marks. With a gulp, he looked down either side of the beach, searching and searching.

_ There _ . He caught a glimpse of a spider monkey fleeing into the brush of grass high on the sand dunes. Above him in the sky he saw one scarlet macaw swooping into the shadows of the treeline. He could only hope the others were with them.

He’d only  _ just  _ washed up on the shore of some island, and he was about to be killed.

Kuroo stared down the point of the sword, briefly glancing around for any of the companions he’d brought along his ship.

_ Great plan, Tetsu,  _ he groaned inwardly.  _ Nekomata needs some magical cure that no one has ever heard of and you end up dying instead. Good job, bravo. _

He decided to start with what usually worked in situations like this–though, he’d never been in a situation like this before, so who’s to say it would work?

Friendly conversation. Bandits loved that sort of stuff, right?

“That’s a great sword you got there,” he started, slipping a cautious smile onto his face.

“State your name,” the one in front of him pressed again. The sword pressed close to his neck, tipping his head up towards the sky.

“Ah, a very sharp sword,” he continued. “Sharpen it daily, I’m sure? Mind introducing me to your swordmaster?”

_ Stop being lazy and go on an adventure _ , Yaku had said.

_ We need to get out of the country for a while, _ Kai had said.

_ Nekomata will gift us a sanctuary if we can pull this off,  _ Fukunaga had quipped. __

Right. That sanctuary would be nice and cozy for their dead bodies, he thought. 

That was the plan. Nekomata-san, the leader of their town, had grown sick. After Kuroo had once cured the cats of the man’s granddaughter, he’d become a sort of beck-and-call for the man and then the townspeople for whatever ailments had taken their animals. 

Now his flock of feathered and not so feathered friends, and himself, had been shipped off to find a cure that no one had seen or heard of for centuries; the Crow’s Matrix, said to be a powerful gem with striking similarity to a gemstone called the Tiger’s Eye. Unfortunately for them, it was even more rare–clearly since they had only been tangible by word of mouth and rumors. 

If they could find the Crow’s Matrix then they would heal Nekomata-san, and also be given a sanctuary in return. A place where he could practice and treat patients whether four-legged or two-legged, and his friends could roam without worry of being poached or hunted.

They had found a trail to hopefully lead them to yet another clue to the gem when a nasty storm had taken their boat and threw all of them into the ocean. Where he’d only just woken up in sand, and probable foes above him. He had no idea if any of their supplies from the boat had been salvaged, or if any of his friends were hurt, injured, or needing any care. Thankfully, they were all relatively small and could hide away until he got out of his own mess.

“Stand up,” one of the swordsmen spat next to him. “Take him to Kuma.”

“Kuma?” Kuroo balked. “Who’s Kuma?”

“Our Queen.”

_ Good job Tetsu. You’re definitely going to get murdered. _

  
  


_ ~ _

  
  


The city was made of marble and gold. They walked the streets, a sword digging into his back shoving him forward, but staring at the gleam that streets and people provided his senses a feeling of escape. There were brown tapestries hanging from open windows, gold woven into the fabric as they fluttered in the wind. 

The extreme heat quickly bled the soaked fabric of his shirt until it was dry and itchy on his equally flushed skin. There was a lack of wind between the tight homes and buildings, causing his dark trousers to warm his legs and the rest of his body. They continued to trek up white stairs that seemed to canvas the city, until he could see a palace with tall spires stretching up to the sky like Icarus and the sun. It was perfectly seated on the highest point of the island, capturing the glint of the sun. The palace reminded him of an old castle off Mount Bay in England, or even the Lichenstein castle–sitting there in its own majesty like it was all that existed, and would ever exist. 

A call above him caught his attention and had him turning his eyes to the bright sun where Kai was flying, scarlet macaw wings spread in the wind but looking down on him carefully. He nodded briefly up to the bird, and Kai gave another caw in return.

_ Everyone is okay,  _ he heard in the bird’s deep call.

Ahead of him there was also a hummingbird fluttering about, ruby throated and twiddling through the throngs of people.

_ Yaku. _

With a slow glance not to catch the bandits attention, he surveyed for the others. 

Jumping from the buildings rooftops was Yamamoto–the spider monkey–following close to Fukunaga–a black striped weasel. 

Kenma was nowhere to be seen though. Though, it’s hard to hide a fossa when they’re between the size of a large house cat and small dog.

With a second glance, he noticed Bokuto and Akaashi were missing too. Though a gecko could easily fit into his pocket, a black panther? Not so much.

Shaking his head until his hair fell over his face, he looked forward. They continued, passing streets of people, and under canvases of eaves. Eventually, they came up to the entrance of the palace where several other bandit guards stood with curved swords and long knives. The same dark claw markings lined under their eyes as they did the group of bandits who were leading him.

The main bandit who had first placed a sword to his neck, nodded to the ones in the entryway. “All of you wait here with him. I’ll make Kuma aware of what we found.”

“Ah, I am a  _ who _ , not a what,” Kuroo tried to grin at the man. “In case you forgot.”

His words went ignored.

The bandit trailed away and inside the open archway of the palace, leaving him with at least fifteen bandits watching him like their prey. The sword at his back never left. They had thankfully moved into the shade of the side of the palace, and it was getting later in the day so the sun’s reflection off the ground wasn’t as hot on his skin. 

Who knows how many hours he’d spent on the beach laying in the sun, but he knew their rays would be giving him a bad sunburn. Every time he blinked, he felt blisters pull underneath his eyes and across his cheeks. Having a mop of hair should have helped with that but the sun had no care for its victims. 

The bandit from before came back, waving them all forward into the palace.

The inside was equally enthralling as the sprawling city of gold. Wherever gold could be placed, you bet it was there. The cracks in the floor were like gold filled cavities beneath his feet. There were gold statues clinging to corinthian type columns. Some were people wrapped in dresses that melted off their bodies towards the floors. Other statues were items that looked to be placed at random; a gold elephant, a long dragon, an anchor–each spaced between columns that lead them further into the palace and further away from escape.

The palace may have been bandit owned just like the rest of the island, but with sunlight falling through one side of windows the entire place glowed. It was nothing like what he expected a bandit island to like.

White curtains blew with the incoming breeze. It wrapped around his body and clothes, allowing him to sigh at the relief it gave his skin.

They eventually walked through a narrow hallway, open windows to one side, leading towards a large archway. Above the arches appeared to be a set of bird figures. One had its wings outstretched as if it could fly off from the palace any moment. The other was tucked closer to the first, beak turned under the other’s wing. With another glance, Kuroo recognized them as crows, but instead of gold they were made of marble. Their eyes were dark onyx staring back at him. 

“Crows?” he whispered.

A shiver fell down Kuroo’s back, even though the sun was back on his skin from the windows.

“Come in,” a voice beckoned from within the room beyond the archway. The bandits lead him forward, underneath the crows and into what could only be called the throne room.

Kuroo’s eyes first landed on the pile of jewels, gems, gold coins, and other expenses that acted as a seat for the throne that was also made of, yes, you guessed it–gold. Wind blew in through all the windows, shaking the curtains on the walls and tapestries hanging from the ceiling and rafters. 

Next, his eyes fell on an older woman on the throne. She sat cross legged in a pair of white harem pants tucked into dark boots, with a black long sleeved shirt. Her hair was almost white in a long braid pulled over one shoulder. Gold string entwined with her hair, leading his eyes to the earrings and necklaces dripping from her form. Bangles and rings circled her hands and wrists, as her head tilted on one hand. She was no different than the other bandits other than the dark claw markings on her face–instead of only under the eyes, the markings came from her forehead, across her eyes and down her cheeks. Tight wrinkles clutched her eyes and the edges of her mouth, showing her age.

Movement beside her drew his eyes to the person standing next to her throne.

Kuroo promptly choked.

The man beside the throne was beautiful, and that was that.

He was in black harem pants, though they weren’t tucked into his boots. The bottoms were cupping his golden calves, but hung loose on his hips. The top he adorned was open to his torso, exposing his naval and black painted markings on his broad chest. The sleeves of the top were nonexistent, allowing Kuroo to fully admire the man’s large biceps–and  _ goddamn– _

His  _ face. _

The man had similar markings to the woman on the throne, except the claw marks were only painted on one side of his face, but also went from his scalp to the crux of his cheeks. His eyes were dark,  _ dark,  _ and though narrowed briefly, they were more wide and curious as they stared back at Kuroo.

His hair was like a rich commodity of chocolate, only a little longer on the top but pushed back out of his face. Kuroo could have carved his own statue out of the man’s jawline, and tan neck with his Adam’s apple bobbing in the heat. The man licked his lips and Kuroo wondered if they were chapped and if so, then hey, who was he to not help someone in need?

He also had gold piercing the range of his ears with one long enough it touched the man’s shoulder. Kuroo found himself wanting to tug it with his teeth, wondering if the man would tilt his head to side invitingly or–

_ Not the types of thoughts you want to have on an island of bandits,  _ Kuroo thought.

The man also had a piercing looped through the arch of his right eyebrow–because of course, on an island of gold why wouldn’t the most attractive man he’d ever seen  _ not  _ be wearing gold jewelry all over his body.

Kuroo stared so long the only thing that pulled his eyes away was the voice of the woman on the throne.

“What’s your business here?” Her voice was low, somber. 

Kuroo cleared his throat, “Aha, no business here, majesty. If you let me free, then I can be on my way–”

“People always have business here,” she interrupted. “We find a man half-drowned laying on our beach. What do you call that?”

Kuroo blinked.  _ Is she serious?  _

“I call it, a storm took my ship and I landed here?”

“By yourself?” Kuma asked. “You travelled how far, by yourself? You’ve brought no one else with you?”

Well, he wasn’t going to bring up the seven animal companions that were likely scattered across the island or waiting right outside the palace for him. What else to do besides distract?

He cleared his throat, turning his attention on the man standing next to Kuma. He looked back at Kuroo with examination. He didn’t wear the same outlandish confusion that Kuma did, instead he was disquisitive.

“Oh? And who might you be?” Kuroo asked, ignoring the other guards, and Kuma’s narrowed gaze. He walked close to the dais that the two were on. “One of her highnesses close guards?”

He certainly had the stature of one. Strong shoulders pulled back, biceps tense with his hands folded behind his back.

Some bandits stepped with their swords ready and aimed at Kuroo, but Kuma raised a hand for them to step back.

The man looked down at Kuroo from his place two steps higher, before reaching over his shoulder, a moment later a sword–fucking really? again?–stared down his throat.

“Sawamura Daichi, grandson to Sawamura Kuma,” he said, voice deep, baritone. Kuroo’s heart clenched, and his throat closed up–both from the overwhelming fact that he was staring his captor’s grandson in the eyes, and the fact that the man had the voice of a god. “Bandit prince.”

The man,  _ Daichi,  _ clenched the sword at it’s golden hilt and tipped Kuroo’s chin up with the sharp tip. He raised his eyebrow, the one with dark claw markings running through it. Kuroo noted the color of his eyes–just as dark from far away but goddamnit they were  _ light,  _ and sparkling with interest like the sun through glass. The curiosity from earlier was still in the man’s eyes, head tilting to the side as he spoke again.

“Why are you here?”

“Well, you see,” he started, the sword digging in his skin with each word, “I’m not here on purpose. I don’t want anything–” _ maybe just for you to fall in love with me?  _ “–I’ll be on my way, I promise.”

“You have no ship. How do you plan to leave?”

“I haven’t thought that far yet,” Kuroo chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. He lifted his eyes from the sword at his throat, staring up at Daichi.

The man had a teasing smile gracing his features. 

A quick patter of weightless feet before a tug on his trousers, guided his attention to the ground. There Bokuto looked up at him through snow leopard gecko eyes, wide and dark, continuing with his appendages to just tug at Kuroo’s pants.

“What is that?” Kuma asked.

Bokuto climbed up Kuroo’s trousers and across his back, before perching on his shoulder.

“You should have stayed outside,” Kuroo whispered through tight lips.

“‘Kaashi said to find you!” Bokuto said, just as low in his gecko-language, flicking his tongue out quickly. “Oh! This one is kinda hot, don’tcha think Kuroo? Where’d you find him?”

Kuroo kept his eyes on Daichi, who raised his eyebrows at the gecko as if he was trying to figure out why Kuroo was not speaking “human.” And that was the conundrum he often faced in the world–a wall placed between him and other people because he would communicate with animals in their own language, something he’d found out as a young kid and what prompted him to study animals later in life. Eventually his studies earned him his doctorship with animals but with that, he lost part of his connection to the human world and the daily aspects that came with that.

It’s why Kai, Yaku, and Fukunaga had been persistent in leaving their practice back home. Besides, the sanctuary that Nekomata was offering had sounded particularly nice–especially if he was going to be taking in others like the giraffe known as Lev. Who, he might add, opted to stay home instead of getting on the boat. 

“Just a gecko, your highnesses,” Kuroo gave them a tight smile, willing for them not to say anything.

Kuma gave Daichi a look, and the man shook his head in return. Pleased, she turned her attention back to Kuroo.

“What is it you want here, traveller?” she asked.

Deciding to be as honest as he could, he told her about how he fell upon the island. About how his ship had come across a terrible storm off the coast of another set of islands he could only assume were nearby. Then how he’d woken up on the shore just earlier, with the bandit’s staring down at him.

“My only desire is to help my town’s leader, who’s ill. I was able to help some of his animals and he just wants to pay me back for that service. I promise to be on my way, I only–”

“You’re an animal doctor?” Daichi asked, surprise evident in his voice. His eyes quickly turned to Kuma, dropping his sword to his side. “Grandmother–”

“No,” she cut him off, standing up. She stood almost a head shorter than Daichi, but the other man clenched his mouth shut. He turned his attention back to Kuroo.

“Take him to the cells for now,” Kuma continued. “Since you’ve not stolen anything, you can stay there until we decide what to do with you.”

The bandits from before swooped around him, grabbing him by the arms and the back of his shirt. Bokuto squeaked, jumping into the front pocket of Kuroo’s shirt. 

“Wait, wait!” Kuroo stumbled, trying to pull away from the guards. “You have an injured animal? Let me see them, maybe I can help?”

“Take him away, please.”

Daichi’s jaw was even tighter than before, considering the scene before him. Nothing was done though as the bandits continued to tug him away and out of the throne room.

Behind him, he heard Kuma sigh before speaking to Daichi. “Why are your shoes wet? Did you honestly go to the pond again after I told you–”

  
  


~

  
  


Okay, so maybe Daichi pulled a random stranger out of the ocean. His shoes had squeaked the entire walk away from the beach, leaving the man in the sand after staring at his handsome face for–

_ Handsome?  _ Daichi shook his head as he made his way from the throne room to his own quarters. The man was handsome. Dark hair falling over part of his face, tall frame, broad but lean shoulders. He’d been relatively hard to pull out of the sea and onto the shore after Daichi saw him floating on a piece of driftwood out of the port. 

Luckily, no one had seen him as called for some turtles to swim about and bring the man closer to shore. Ah, and he still didn’t know the man’s name.

Well.

Maybe he should change that.

  
  


~

  
  


“The cell isn’t too bad,” Bokuto said from inside Kuroo’s shirt.

“You know what else isn’t too bad bud?”

“What’s that?”

“ _ Escaping. _ ”

Bokuto crawled out and then hopped onto the wall. 

He wasn’t wrong. The cell itself wasn’t… Terrible. But he’d never been thrown into bandit-jail before so he had nothing to compare it to other than what he thought bandit-jail would have been like. Granted he had one foot chained that wasn’t letting him any further than four feet off the wall, it could have been a lot worse. There were windows around the tops letting in evening sunlight, and the bricks of the cell were cool against his flushed skin.

A buzz of wings, and a caw from one of the windows, caused him to look up. There perched on the windowsill was Kai, and Yaku buzzing his hummingbird wings right next to the macaw. 

“Where are the others?” Kuroo asked.

The two birds flew in through the bars of the window, and landed on the stone floor.

“Akaashi and Kenma are searching around the outskirts of the palace,” Kai answered. “Fukunaga and Yamamoto are both trying to get a feel for the city. Maybe after we find a way to get you out, they’ll have found a ship or something.”

With a close scoff, Yaku shook out his feathers. “If we can find a way to get him out. This place is covered from end to end with guards.”

“And they all have swords,” Bokuto chirped helpfully.

Kuroo rubbed his face with the bunt of his palms. His cheeks stung with their burns, hot against his hands.

“What the hell are we going to do?” He mumbled. “There’s no way we can be here for more than a couple days with decline that Nekomata is in. And we certainly can’t wait around for her royal highness to make some decision.”

“Which could be to kill you,” Yaku informed.

“Thanks Yaku, very kind.”

“Always.”

The sound of a groaning door dragged their faces towards the cell entrance. A shadow crossed the walls, engraved by the sun, before someone settled in front of the cell door.

Across from them, Daichi stood.

Kuroo looked at the heir-ling. Daichi, with his shiny golden jewelry, tan skin, and raised eyebrows. Kuroo let his eyes roam down the man’s form, from the new pair of boots he donned, the sliver of skin between said boots and the pants hugging his calves. All the way past his open shirt and toned chest, to the man’s eyes.

“Well hello, prince. Should I call you prince?” Kuroo asked, cheeks pulling a smile. “What a surprise.”

Yaku buzzed from nearby, “Don’t flirt.”

“You can call me whatever you like,” he said, leaning against the bar of the cell. He wrapped ring-swaddled fingers around the metal bars, lips moving close to the rods of steel. “I don’t, unfortunately, know what to call you.”

It was Kuroo’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “And why would the young heir need to know the name of some poor traveller?”

“Because I could help a poor traveller become a very rich traveller.”

Kuroo stared at the man. Kai let out a caw, and Bokuto whispered from inside his shirt pocket, “Wait, like money?”

“Mm. You heal animals, yes?” Daichi asked, never taking his eyes away from Kuroo’s own.

“I can. I’m a doctor of the animal kind.”

“If you want off this island,” Daichi said, voice lowering, “then you’d be wise to answer my questions.”

Kuroo scoffed. He wasn’t sure if he should be impressed, scared, or turned on.

He decided on a little bit of each.

“My name,” he drawled, “is Kuroo Tetsurou.”

With a smirk, he stood up from where he’d slid against the wall. The length of the chain allowed for him to come just a hair’s breadth of being face-to-face with him. Close, and on the same level, he was extremely pleased to find out he was taller than the other man. “Your highness, are you making deals without your queen knowing?”

“My grandmother became queen because she stole,” he said. “Just like her mother, and everyone else on this island. You’re on an island of bandits, so me coming here to talk to you is like daily routine to everyone else. You’re a prisoner. To repeat–on an island of bandits. And you’re not a fighter. Being here without Kuma knowing should be the least of your worries.”

“And how can you tell? That I’m not a fighter?”

Daichi’s eyes raked over his form. Kuroo felt like the man had unclothed him and could see down to his very bone, his core, straight through his soul. “You might be in good form, but your muscles aren’t built for fighting. Besides, if you were here to steal something from our island, you would have come with weapons other than your animal friends.”

_ Animal friends? _

“And how do you know they’re friends?”

“Because, just like you, I’ve also studied their words.”

Kuroo promptly choked on air. “You understand them?”

Daichi smirked. 

_ Don’t do that to me,  _ Kuroo groaned internally. He wanted to clench the spot in his chest that squeezed from the man’s look, but instead he kept his hands on his hips.

“And everything you’ve said to them. The small bird’s language is less familiar, but still understandable.”

“Me?” Yaku promptly flew from the window’s above. “Did you just call me small?”

“Better not do that,” Kuroo said. “He's sensitive about his size.”

A laugh rang out from Daichi’s chest, golden hued in the air between them. “My apologies.”

“You didn’t say anything earlier though. In the throne room.”

“With the gecko?” 

Bokuto popped his head out of Kuroo’s pocket.

“Yeah, this is Bokuto. The hummingbird is Yaku, and the macaw at the window is Kai,” Kuroo said, rubbing the back of his head. “I may have several more with me.”

“May?”

“He does,” Kai cawed. “A fossa, a weasel, a black panther, and a spider monkey.”

“That’s quite the lot you have with you.”

“Look,” Kuroo started, “I really am on a trip to save my town’s leader. He needs something special. He’s already done so much for me, and my friend’s here. Let me help you with whatever you need, and then we can be on our way. Please.”

Daichi studied him again. His eyes dark and swirling. A patch of sunlight began to fall on his face as the sun continued to lower outside the prison walls. Kuroo’s chest remained tight in the silence that followed.

“My friend,” Daichi said, slow, “also needs help. I’m not a doctor, of any kind. But if you help me, I’ll plead with my grandmother or help you out myself. That’s all I can promise you.”

Kuroo nodded, trying not to seem too eager as Daichi pulled out a set of keys from behind his back, and began unlocking the cell door.

After getting the chain from around Kuroo’s ankle unlocked, Kuroo began to follow Daichi through the prison.

  
  
  


~

  
  
  


They through the rest of the palace in relative ease. Daichi informed him that Kuma had plans for a banquet of sorts in the dining hall, where most of the guards and other people of the palace would be.

The man’s room was large. There were open windows covered by dark curtains, trapping whatever coolness had been allowed into the palace. Tapestries and fabric fell from the rafters of the room. Several candles burned from their candle trees and holders on the walls, giving the space an immediate feeling of nightime, as if it was already well past the middle of night. 

In the center of the room there was a bed stuffed with brightly colored pillows. Black fabric trimmed in gold created a canopy around the bed. Kuroo couldn’t see it, but he heard water rushing nearby.

He trained his eyes past a couple statues, towards the back of the room, where Daichi was headed.

“Daichi-san! You’re back!” A voice chirped. _ Spider monkey? _ Kuroo noted in the inflection. 

“Daichi,” a more tentative voice began, “Kuma could have caught you–”

_ Grizzly bear?!  _ A rush of excitement flooded through his system, to the point he stood side by side with Daichi.

Just around the bed, there was a water system. A small pool of water, as well as a waterfall, was carved into the ground and draining from the wall. Little pools of water stemmed away, as well as one that fell out an opening of the room, likely cascading down the palace walls on the outside.

Right beside the moving water though–

“How the fuck did a snow leopard find it’s way to an island like this?” Kuroo exclaimed.

Said snow leopard, a grizzly bear, a spider monkey, and a sugar glider all turned their attention on him. A low growl came from the snow leopard who laid on a cool stone in the middle of the small pond. The grizzly bear sat up in a sitting position, with the spider monkey sat on its head and the sugar glider on its shoulder.

Daichi nodded to each of them, naming them for Kuroo, “Asahi, bear. Tanaka, monkey, and Noya the sugar glider.”

He kicked off his shoes before stepping into the shallow pond. He kneeled next to the snow leopard, and looked back at Kuroo. “This is Suga, and he’s one of my oldest friends. And he’s sick. Can you help him?

The leopard, Suga, contemplated Kuroo. He flicked his puffy tail on the stone, while his cat eyes stared back. 

“Can we trust him?” Suga asked.

Daichi and Kuroo looked at one another. The shorter man nodded with no hesitation, “We can trust him.”

Both Daichi and Kuroo sat down on the flat stone. Cool water from the waterfall fell on Kuroo’s back, but he focused on starting a general examination.

“There’s not too much I can do without any equipment or medicine,” he said, reaching out for Suga’s paw. “May I?”

The leopard gave a nod and Kuroo looked over his paws, his nails, clean and trimmed.

“Nothing in pain? Injuries?”

Suga shook his head.

“Tilt your head up, and open your mouth for me?” 

The leopard did so. Kuroo looked back in his throat, and across his rows of sharp teeth.  _ Nothing out of the ordinary _ , he thought. Though the amount of times he’d looked over big cats was slim–meaning Akaashi, a black leopard, for any general examinations.

Kuroo let him close his mouth and started looking at his eyes and then in his ears.

“What’s been the issue?” He asked the cat.

“Exhaustion, tired,” Suga said, flopping his head back against the stone. “It’s been too hot.”

“I see,” Kuroo said. He looked at Daichi’s whose eyes were already on him.

“See what?”

“Ultimately, the heat is beginning to be too much for him. Which makes sense considering he’s a snow leopard.”

“But I don’t like the cold,” Suga whined.

Kuroo scoffed, “You don’t like the cold?”

_ A difficult patient _ , he thought. A snow leopard who didn’t like the cold was quite something, but Lev didn’t like heights and well–he’s a giraffe. He was perpetually stuck with height, and it was something they were still working on.

Suga grumbled, refusing to look at him. “The water has been enough.”

With a sigh, Daichi patted Suga’s head. 

“Water will only do so much, but the climate is taking its toll. How long have you been on this island?”

“They’ve all been with me for years now,” Daichi said. “There was an illegal animal transport that had crashed off the opposite side of the island, where we pulled some of the ship crew out. As well as the animals we could.”

The man tugged at his ear where one of the longer piercings draped near his shoulder. He looked to do it unconsciously, brown eyes turned down in thought.

Kuroo sighed, sitting on the edge of the pool, allowing for his feet and the bottom of his pants to soak. “The best option would be a change in climate. There’s not really a place cooler, whether in a pool or in the shade, you can’t stay there all the time. Because of where the island is located, it’s hot–a lot.” 

“Are you suggesting he leave?” the bear, asked. Asahi, if Kuroo remembered correctly.

“ _ Leave _ ?” questioned the spider monkey.  _ Tanaka? _ Kuroo questioned. “Where would we go?”

“You’ve been here for years, the toll on his body is already pretty great. Even if you left to another place, as long as they had some way to create a place that’s cool enough, you’d be okay. It’s not as if I’m saying Suga has to leave to live in the tundra, nothing like that,” Kuroo rushed to explain. “But it doesn’t seem like there is anything here, or anyone who would be able to do that.”

Daichi’s fingers tugged again at the earring from his ear. He stood up, sloshing water at his feet. 

“It’s not like we haven’t talked about it,” Daichi said. His back was turned from the other’s as he stepped out of the small pool, water dripping from his legs and the edges of his pants. “None of you asked to be here as long as you have been. That’s my fault–”

“Daichi  _ no, _ ” Suga rushed, alarmed.

“–but,” he continued, whirling around. “We’ll fix this.”

The sugar glider promptly jumped from Asahi’s shoulders, gliding as he would, straight towards Daichi. The man caught him in his palms. Noya stared up with the fiercest expression one could muster from a sugar glider.

With a huff and a nod of his head, Noya clapped his small palms onto Daichi’s. “ _ We  _ fix this. Together.”

Daichi ran the tip of his finger over the back of Noya’s head, before humming, “We do this together.”

The sugar glider flew back towards the bear, before Daichi faced Kuroo again.

“You’re strange, outsider.”

“I gave you my name and you won’t even use it?” Kuroo chuckled, uncomfortable under the gaze of both Daich and his friends.

The man ignored his words, instead stepping towards Kuroo. His eyes search Kuroo’s face, scanning past Kuroo’s own eyes. He looked across his forehead, to his chin, narrowing his eyes briefly. 

“Something you like?” Kuroo tried, with a smirk.

Daichi scoffed, before poking Kuroo in the chest. 

“Ow, ow! What was that for?”

“You’re sunscorched on your cheeks, and the back of your neck. Go sit in that corner. I have some aloe I can put on it.”

Kuroo held his surprise, but the flush that sparked on his cheeks  _ hurt _ with the burn left from the sun. “Highness, that won’t be necessary–”

The glare Kuroo received rivaled any conversational glower Yaku or Kai had given him. The man pointed towards the directed corner, watching until Kuroo turned around and walked away. 

The spot in the room Daichi had sent him to was situated up several steps, cocooned in a dropped opening were piles of colorful pillows. It was tucked by arch windows, open but covered as much as the wind would allow the obsidian curtains. He walked up the couple of steps before trying to make himself comfortable amongst the soft cushions. 

Daichi had disappeared through an entry way on the opposite side of his room, so Kuroo faced the windows, trying his hardest to ignore the stares of the different animals.

The curtains, limpid in their movement swayed enough to give wide visibility to the world beyond the palace. Dark. The sun had hidden itself from vision of the moon, taken with it the red heat. Stretched far past the town, through tall trees and the dissolving heat, there was the beach he’d washed upon. Further past the everbeyond horizon was home. 

Nekomata-san had been growing sick for months. This was their last ditch effort, after every healer, every doctor, all the nurses the land had to provide, tried a go to restore their leader back to his aging youth. His granddaughter had approached Kuroo two weeks previously, knowing that Kuroo had gone to such lengths as travelling before to save her own animals. She’d almost begged, saying that her grandfather and grandmother were all she had left. Someone at ten years old shouldn’t have had to look up at him with such despair in their eyes, but she’d peered with quivering lips. 

She’d shoved a decaying piece of parchment map into his hands, asked him to think about it.

Kuroo thought now that he should have said no. There was no guarantee that after this Daichi would be able to help him escape or convince his grandmother to let Kuroo leave–no guarantee that he would find the Crow’s Matrix and even make it back to their town.

And they’d also lost the map in their wreck.

They had very literally hit rock bottom.

The most Kuroo thought they could do was to find passage back to their town, and arrive with their tails tucked between their legs.

A tap on his shoulder pulled him back, centered him in the universe. Daichi was watching him with concern. He joined Kuroo in the pit of pillows, holding a clear jar of tinted green liquid.

“That’s gonna help my cheeks?” Kuroo asked.

Daichi didn’t answer. Instead he pushed back one of the curtains. The dark had overtaken the island, and the lights of the town were blinking to mirror the stars above. A cool wind blew in from the coast, dabbing at the flush of his sunburned skin.

The man pressed closer, leaning close. With rough tipped fingers, he tilted Kuroo’s face towards the moon’s light. His touch was gentle, tentative despite his skin’s grained texture. Beneath their pads was the entirety of Kuroo’s fate.

Kuroo wanted to trust that touch. And the hold it had with the noose around his neck. He could choke under the pressure, or the man could cut the rope.

“You have sensitive skin, huh?” Daichi asked, lips pulled to a crooked smile.

Kuroo tried hard not to lean into the man’s hand, towards the finger smoothing underneath the worst of his sunscorched cheeks.

“Are all of you on this island so thick-skinned?” Kuroo countered.

Daichi cringed, gaze hardening, “If you’re calling me fat–”

“No, no! Just, you all must be use to the sun, so tan, and handsome and I–”

“A good observation,” Daichi continued. He shook his head, but raised his eyebrow at Kuroo. “Handsome huh?”

“Do you not like handsome?” Kuroo rushed, a strong blush flowing through his face and crawling down his neck. “Good-looking, or beautiful? Pretty? Do you prefer pretty?”

Daichi covered Kuroo’s mouth with his hand. For the first time, it was Daichi who wore a lovely red in his cheeks. “If I say yes, will you stop?”

Thankful for being stopped, Kuroo nodded. The other removed his hand, and started opening the jar he held instead. It released a scent of eucalyptus and sage, petting Kuroo’s nose with coolness. 

“This will help soothe the burn, as well as stitch your skin so there should be minimum peeling,” Daichi said.

He dipped his fingers into the canister of gel, before reaching for Kuroo’s cheeks. 

“For the record, I still think you’re still handsome–with the burns,” Daichi said. His gaze was focused on the gentle swoop of his fingers across Kuroo’s skin. Coolness overtook the heat under his eyes but Kuroo briefly wondered if Daichi could tell the difference between Kuroo’s embarrassed flush and the blistered skin, or if they ran and melted together.

“You say that to everyone who wanders onto your island?” Kuroo asked.

“Hardly.”

“Just me?” Kuroo asked, soft voice just above a whisper. 

Daichi didn’t answer and Kuroo looked past Daichi’s shoulder, across the room where his friends appeared to be asleep close to the waterfall.

“What are you looking for?” Daichi asked.

Kuroo blinked at him, refocusing on Daichi instead of the relief on his skin. “Looking for?”

“You said you were looking for something for your leader,” he continued, dipping his fingers again for another clump of gel. He inclined closer to Kuroo, the heat rolling off his body tingling past the hair on Kuroo’s skin. He pushed, a little further with his hands, moving them away from Kuroo’s face to the back of his neck.

Daichi’s face was a breath away as he massaged his fingers into the nape of Kuroo’s neck. His movements were passive as they lazily stroked and tickled the baby hairs at the bottom of his skull. 

With a careful breath, Kuroo’s gaze wandered over the man’s close features. The incredibly dark eyes, and the claw-mark painted over the left eye brought his face into a sharp focus. The piercings over his eyebrows, and the ones littering his ears shined in the moon’s glow.

Daichi pressed another of his fingers in tantalizing circles, down the top of his spine, until Kuroo visibly shivered.

And Kuroo watched as Daichi’s tongue licked over his chapped lips, and Kuroo wanted–again–to just  _ see,  _ feel, if the pink skin was really that dry. Or maybe it was some illusion but–

The curtains stirred next to them. The moment, or whatever Kuroo thought it could have been, dissipated as Daichi cleared his throat. He pulled his fingers from the back of Kuroo’s neck, and leaned back into the comfort of pillows.

“Was it that you’re looking for, Kuroo? For your leader?”

Kuroo studied the man’s face, open like a door left cracked, waiting for someone to enter. 

“Something called the Crow’s Matrix,” Kuroo said.

Daichi froze, eyes settled outside the window. The open door Kuroo had seen on the other’s face shut, with a click, and a blink of his eyes.

“Crow’s Matrix?” He asked, tone deliberate as toes stepping through shards of glass. As if he were pouring tea into a delicate set of cups.

The wind blew once again, drifting just through the front waves of Daichi’s hair. He pulled his eyes from past the palace walls, back to Kuroo. “I should take you back to the cell now. I’ll… decide on what to do about Suga’s situation and talk to my grandmother about your release.”

Kuroo wasn’t given the chance to respond as Daichi gathered himself and walked towards the door of his room, looking back expectantly at Kuroo.

  
  
  


~

  
  
  


Kuroo sat back in the cell. The weight of the chain on his ankle was almost comforting after the tense walk back with Daichi. The man had left, leaving not a word, sound, or look towards him or the few animals that had gathered in the cell.

“I’m in love,” Kuroo sighed, leaning his head against the night-cooled concrete wall.

Yaku scoffed from his perch, “You can’t be.”

“Have you  _ seen _ him?” Kuroo asked. 

Yaku continued blabbering in his ear, Kai chipping in every now and then, but Kuroo allowed himself to lay on the floor. He pressed his head into a soft cushion he couldn’t remember being brought in.

Within moments, black sleep consumed his thoughts.

  
  
  


~ 

  
  
  


“Psst! Kuroo!”

Kuroo groaned at the voice, turning, balling himself away from it.

“Shh,” Kuroo whispered through his sleep ridden haze, “I’ll have everyone’s food ready… Just… A few more minutes…”

“Ah,” a new voice started, deep, human, “Kuroo-san, you may want to be awake for this.”

Kuroo jolted, turning away from the wall of the prison cell. Bright sun crawled across the floor, but there was still a coolness in the air left from the night. He determined it was probably early in the morning.

On the other side of the prison’s bars, Daichi stared back at him. Deja-vu soiled his vision as Kuroo watched the other man. He blinked, trying to wish away the sleep that pulled at his subconscious, until he could clearly look at Daichi’s face.

He was more relaxed than when he’d left Kuroo the night before. His shoulders were lower, but his arms were crossed across the bars. His hands were loose around the metal, nails tapping with a barely there  _ clink-clink.  _ His outfit was strikingly similar to the one he was in the last they saw each other–harem type pants, olive instead of black, tight around his calves; boots strapped in dark leather; his top was limp over his torso and shoulders, open to his chest but closed just above his belly-button. The gold jewelry had either not left his body, or had stayed overnight, but the black painted claw mark over his eye was fresh, deep.

“Your highness,” Kuroo said, willing his voice level under Daichi’s near-genial gaze. “What can I do for you so early on this fine day?”   
  


Instead of quipping back, Daichi turned his eyes to the ground.

“I’m here to show you something.”

After the same routine of unlocking the cuff and chains around his one foot, Kuroo followed Daichi back through the prison. Instead of heading through the palace walls, Daichi led them through a path in the opposite direction–outside, in the morning air. They trek away from the bustling sounds of the palace, away from the city and it’s beautiful swaying tapestries. Their steps take them even farther from the sea, away from his only known exit.

Daichi is quiet on their way, whatever way it is.

Kuroo almost thinks the man could be taking him to his death, except he has no sword, there are no other guards, and he’s surprisingly relaxed for someone who  _ could  _ kill him with his thighs alone.

“Highness, you wouldn’t happen to have decided to kill me, would you?”

Daichi shocks Kuroo with a full laugh that bounces off trees. “Do you want me to?”

“No thanks,” he says, a smile lured onto his own features. “Care to share where you’re taking me?”

“Just a little further.”

They travel uphill, through a few sparse trees, before coming across a ledge. 

Daichi guides him to sit down amongst a cluster of large boulders and rocks while he rummages around.

Kuroo takes his seat on the ground, back across the cool stone, turning his face from the early sun that’s starting to already dig into the tender skin on his cheeks and under his eyes. He focuses on Daichi who has pulled out a black chest.

An honest-to-god treasure chest.

There’s a silence that falls across the two of them as Daichi unlocks it, and pulls from it–

A journal?

“This was my mother’s,” Daichi says, tone giving nothing away. He shows the journal face to Kuroo as he comes to sit next to him. Their shoulders are pressed together and Kuroo tries to focus on the journal and calm his breathing instead of the hyperawareness he has tuned to the warmth rolling off of Daichi.

Daichi places the journal in Kuroo’s palms.

“She had the same gift,” Daichi continues, “of being able to communicate with animals. Here, she wrote a majority of her studies, and I’ve only tacked onto it with my own thoughts, some findings here and there.”

Kuroo holds the bound pages, thumbs at the brown leather. He finds himself gentle in holding it, an object appearing to be most precious to Daichi considering he hides it away from the palace, in a chest, tucked in a alcove of rocks. 

“Why are you showing me this?” He whispers to Daichi.

Holding something so close to the prince of the island feels like something too advanced for him–as if he’s been given an array of chemicals, told to find what combination makes a cure, but not told what cure he’s supposed to be finding. Daichi doesn’t know him, and he’s  _ just _ met the other. So why should he have given him a valued treasure?

Daichi answers, oblivious to Kuroo’s internal conflict, “My mother writes in this journal about what you’re needing–the Crow’s Matrix.”

This forces Kuroo’s thoughts to come to a firm halt.

“At the time, before she died, the Crow’s Matrix had been a gem protected in a cavern in the center of an island. Two dragon’s watched over it.”

Daichi reaches to the journal, flicking with his own calloused fingers at the pages. He opens it as if he has the pages committed to memory, before drawings and words open up before Kuroo’s eyes.

“Here is where the dragons told my mother about how it would grant someone a wish.”

“A wish?” Kuroo finds himself not looking at the words on the pages anymore, but at Daichi–his fascinated eyes, their swirling cocoa, reflecting the dancing sun’s rays.

He hums at Kuroo, tapping the parched pages. “Ah, my mother fell ill when she was pregnant with me, that’s what she writes here. She asked that the dragons, if they could not heal her, then to heal me. And they did. They used the Crow’s Matrix to grant her the wish, but at the cost that–”

He cleared his throat, finally turning his gaze up to meet Kuroo’s. 

“At the cost that her unborn child would instead become the Crow’s Matrix.”

Kuroo’s boggles, staring, determining whether or not he should be pleased because–oh  _ god _ their answer to Nekomata’s disease is sitting right next to him,  _ or  _ absolute fucking shit, because their answer is sitting right next to him. In the form of this wonderful man, prince of an island, who hardly knows Kuroo. There’d be no way he’d just… Help, out of the kindness of his heart. Daichi had only said he’d help Kuroo escape, but that he’d be willing to leave his island and travel hundreds of miles away to an unknown country to heal his town’s leader. 

“You?” Kuroo asks instead.

“Me.”

“I–I can’t ask you to just  _ leave, _ I can’t do that,” Kuroo said quickly, eyeing the pages instead of Daichi’s now unreadable look. “This is your  _ home–” _

Daichi cut him off by placing his warm palm over Kuroo’s mouth. “I’ve already talked it over with Suga, Asahi, Tanaka and Noya. Suga needs to leave the island anyways or the worst could happen. You’ve already stated this.”

He waits a couple moments before releasing his palm. Kuroo sucks in the now warmed midday air.

“My intention wasn’t for you to just pack up and leave not, not for me.”

Daichi sighs, “You saying you were looking for the Crow’s Matrix is just the tip of an already heavy scale.”

“Why?” Kuroo asks, tone more pleading than he’d intended, as if he were grasping for straws he couldn’t see or hadn’t yet understood. “Your grandmother–”

“Kuma knew I wouldn’t be able to stay here for the rest of my life,” he turns his head determinedly towards the sky. “I’ll be talking to my grandmother. If things go right, we’ll leave tomorrow.”

Kuroo’s world simultaneously turned upside down and flipped rightside up. It was as if the planets had aligned, or someone had cracked his spine to realign his chakras. 

“You’re a strange one, Highness.”

“You can call me Daichi,” the man said, as he pulled himself up. He stood close to the edge of the ledge, staring not below at the deep ravine below but far beyond the horizon. A new, only imagined world, tugged the harp strings of the man’s body as he placed his hands on his hips.

“Strange indeed,” Kuroo said, leaning his head on his palm, “ _ Daichi.” _

  
  
  


~

  
  
  


Daichi wasn’t kidding when he said he had intentions in talking with Kuma. As soon as they returned back to the palace, after more conversing had occurred, Daichi called one of the guards to summon a meeting with Kuma in the throne room.

Kuroo stood next to Daichi, feeling an immense comfort with the other’s gravity next to him. The man’s shoulder brushed against his own, with no intention of leaving. And he can’t explain it, that inexplicable gravity and the heaviness that pulls him closer, that asks him to pull Daichi away from his home, his birthplace, to take him far away and grant healing to someone he has never met.

Kuroo was right, as he thought back to when he met the man the day before. There’d been some type of yearning tha had floated below the surface of the man’s gaze, stretching past Kuroo and everyone else that had been in the room. 

“Grandmother,” Daichi says. His voice tugs Kuroo’s attention to the woman who enters the throne room with all the grace she had the day before. She’s wearing similar outfitting–with the jewels and gold draping her figure transforming her into an untouchable statue.

Suddenly, Kuroo is less sure of Daichi’s resolve to talk to her.

“Daichi,” she says, tone low, tired. She wisps past the throne and the pile of gold behind it, to stand in front of her grandson.

An emotion passes across her face, one akin to settlement, but it passes as she takes a heavy breath. “You wish to leave?”

“Yes.”

“With him?”

“Yes.”

She stares.

For a long, stretched out moment, she just continues to fix her eyes on her grandson. Her eyes flit across his face, studying and mapping his features. Like she’s painting a picture.

Like she’s preparing to never see him again.

In an instant, she whirls on Kuroo.

“You are the ringleader of a circus,” she said, gaze impossibly hard compared to the brief softness she’d given Daichi. “What could you possibly offer to my grandson that could compare to being the heir apparent of our island?”

“My heart. If he’ll have it,” and he means it. He thought it and spoke it without hesitance. Looking at Daichi next to him, he knows he’ll give this man his heart. He’d give him everything.

Daichi coughs. There’s a beautiful blush working its way up his tanned neck, but he keeps his eyes forward and on Kuma.

The woman blinks at Kuroo. There’s a deep exhaustion that makes its home on her features.

“I do not like you,” she says. Kuroo shivers under the tone, even though the heat in the room is almost unbearable as the sun had risen in the sky. He opens his mouth to speak, but she halts him with a hand up. “I do not like you, but my grandson does not trust so easily. Whatever you have done for him to give you his trust,  _ I _ trust that. You should be wise to trust I will send this island after your head if I hear something has happened to him, outsider.”

A chill continues up his spine, until he pulls a nervous smile on his face. “I’d hope that’s not the case. I promise to take care of your grandson,” he gives a half bow, before saying, “and to protect your gem.”

Kuma is silent, before the turn of her feet is all he sees.

She calls through the palace, “Have Daichi’s ship prepared and ready to be gone by morning.”

  
  
  


~

  
  
  


It ended a little like this. 

Kuroo and Daichi climbing aboard a ship named  _ Gold Ground.  _ With a macaw and hummingbird fluttering about the air, two spider monkeys jumping from the sails with the long sky as their background, and a fossa and black panther laid out in the sun, warming their spots and stripes. With a snow leopard sleeping below deck in the cooler air, and a grizzly bear lumbering around the deck with a sugar glider sitting on his shoulders.

It continued like this.

With Kuroo and Daichi taking each other’s hands, standing at the helm of the ship looking upon the world in front of them. Unsure of what was before him, Daichi only gripped the other man’s hand.

He was sure of one thing, Kuroo’s presence next to him.

And it ends, a little like this.

Months later, with Kuma perched at the dinner table in the dining hall, staring at her plate of food. Voices of the other bandits and lawbreakers carried across the room. Her gaze moved to an open window where a crow came, and sat in the window. 

A letter strapped to its leg–

_ Sawamura Kuma, _

_ You are invited to the wedding of one Sawamura Daichi and Kuroo Tetsurou. _

_ Help us embark on an everlasting journey. _

  
  
~ ~ ~

_then leaf subsides to leaf_

_so eden sank to grief,_

_so dawn goes down to day_

_nothing gold can stay_

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading friends... 
> 
> come scream about daichi with me???? [twitter](https://twitter.com/spacedaichi)
> 
> i've not really been as active on tumblr so uuuh i'll just leave twitter there
> 
> thank you all for reading <33 hopefully going back to work will get me into a better schedule of writing and such


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